Accenture Hospitality Service for Marriott? (revised) - Analyst Blog

By: Zacks.com

Posted: 6/25/2013 8:30:00 AM

Referenced Stocks: ACN;AHS;III;MAR;TW

Bellwether hotelier
Marriott International Inc.
(
MAR
) made plans to transfer business services to
Accenture
(
ACN
) last week. Financial terms were not divulged, and the services
are subject to final contract execution.

Accenture is expected to provide its Finance and Accounting
(F&A) services to Marriott International for 10 full years.
To give a better shape to the services, Accenture will
collaborate with the Marriott Business Services (MBS) unit, a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Marriott, engaged in managing F&A
operations.

As per Marriott, its MBS unit lacks Accenture's economies of
scale and wide industry exposure. With Accenture's services,
operational costs of managing F&A for the hotels and resorts
under the Marriott-brand will be lowered.

Leveraging MBS' expertise and capabilities, Accenture will form a
new business service: Accenture Hospitality Services (AHS). AHS
will not only serve Marriott but other companies in the
hospitality industry, as well.

Gradual economic recovery has resulted to the upside in the hotel
industry. Industry experts also expect major hoteliers to expand
internationally. Expansions generally complicate management of
business operations across different countries. With AHS,
Accenture will now have a better understanding of the hotel
industry, thus creating room for similar deals in the future.

Over the past few weeks, Accenture has won a number of deals.
Accenture helped Japan-based apparel retailers United Arrows to
develop a new system to manage its merchandise. Apart from this,
Accenture also won a management consulting service contract from
Elm, a Saudi Arabia-based company engaged in providing secure
e-business, IT, project support and government outsourcing
services.

Under the terms of the contract, Accenture will provide
consulting services to Elm's newly set up unit, Elm Learning,
Training & Development Solutions (Elm LTDs). We believe that
all these will drive solid top-line growth.

Currently, Accenture has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Investors may
also consider other stocks in the sector that are performing
better. I
nformation Services Group Inc.
(
III
), with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and
Towers Watson
(
TW
) with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) are worth buying.

(We are re-publishing this article to correct an error. The
original version, posted yesterday, June 24, 2013, is no longer
to be relied upon.)